Two Articles on Evangelicalism in JETS

In the latest issue of JETS are two very good pieces about evangelicalism:

D. Keith Campbell, “The American Evangelical Academy and the World: A challenge to Practice More Globally.”

In this article, Campbell argues that rather than bemoan the mass of freshly minted Ph.Ds in biblical and theological studies who are flooding the job market that we should be looking to direct them towards missional opportunities in the rest of the world. It is possible to contribute to mission, the church, and the academy all at once in these locations. He writes:

Aspiring evangelical scholars who desire to impact both the global church and the academy must themselves consider practicing their scholarship abroad long term where the need is greater. Succinctly, America’s flooded market of evangelical scholars and the global dearth of them warrants a reassessment of evangelical academic vocational goals – one that, in striving for missional theological consistency, encourages many academicians to serve in geographical locations where their discipline(s) are scarcely practiced.

A wonderful thought and one I fully agree with!

Gerald R. McDermott, “The Emerging Divide in Evangelical Theology.”

In this piece, McDermott points out about a division in evangelicalism between the Meliorists (like Stan Grenz and Roger Olson) and Traditionists (who are either Biblicicists or Paleo-orthodox  like Wayne Grudem and Thomas Oden). In a nutshell, McDermott thinks that Meliorists like Olson are in the danger of become neo-Schleiermacherian because of their focus on experience and willingness to revise classic doctrine. Amidst all the debate here, I liked McDermott’s plea that sola scriptura needs to be placed in a wider communal context in order to uphold orthodox, otherwise it simply leads to individuals touting heresy. He writes:

The lesson evangelicals should have learned is that sola scriptura is necessary but not sufficient for maintaining theological orthodooxy. Only a ‘single-source’ view of tradition in which the hermeneutical authority is given to the mutual interplay of Scripture and orthodox community – the method that the church practiced for most of Christian history – can protect evangelical theology from going the way of all flesh, to liberal Protestantism.

True dat!